Man, cops really hate being treated like criminals because of the actions of a few bad cops. Weird.By Ijeoma Oluo

Interesting that Ferguson protesters in their 20s/30s are called "youth" while Michael Brown, who was actually a youth, is portrayed as menacing adult.By Sarah Kendzior

Today showed me that some people like "young people leading" as long as it mimics patterns from the past. That's not support. #FergusonBy DeRay Mckesson

We have to get over this idea that being peaceful means we can't be angry. You don't have to tear things up to be mad.By Atom Ant

Cute: NYPD union responds to the Daily News report on 179 [NYC citizens] killed by cops in 15 years by noting 80 cops were killed in that span. All but 10 of the cops were 9/11-related.By Oren Yaniv

Kris Straub nails the problem with #AllLivesMatter in a simple three-panel comic from his Patreon feed:

By Tim Marsh

Let's make a deal: Peaceful protest in exchange for NON-DEADLY police enforcement? Seems those in charge should LEAD BY EXAMPLE.By Paul Thomas

“Why do we diminish it by suggesting that it was an act against just one group?” asked a leading Canadian journalist about a massacre of women [in Montreal]. That was 1989 and nothing about that narrative has changed. Pay attention to that. She claims that calling killings of women killings of women “diminishes” them. This is the logic of #AllLivesMatter.By Erin Kissane

There were also a lot of tweets about the torture report:

The 5 stages of torture apologists:

By almightygod

hey a bunch of people were shackled + anally raped in your name IT'S OVER LET'S MOVE ON. a corporation's computers were hacked THIS MEANS WARBy Saladin Ahmed

Just like 70% of Americans once though Saddam was behind 9/11, now 56% think torture worked. This is a massive indictment of the US media.By Dan Froomkin

Funny how Jesus somehow became a wealthy white suburbanite who hates the poor and loves war & torture.By David Roberts

Everything is torture except for torture.By Jonathan Glick

It's a wonder that more kids don't dress as Dick Cheney at Halloween. By Robert O. Simonson

Shooting a 12-year-old. Shoving a man in a box and pouring insects in. These things are never okay. Why are we treating them like debates?By Saladin Ahmed

If you are making an amoral "results" argument for safety, you can basically do anything--including torture and kill.By Ta-Nehisi Coates

The only accurate intelligence that torture provided us, was that torture doesn't work.By jamiekilstein

Some people think the 9/11 attacks were only morally wrong because they happened to the United States.By nothingsmonstered

Al Qaeda "an evil we couldn't fathom." Incredible. In a country built on theft, blood and slavery.By Ta-Nehisi Coates

Ouch, Steve Sack. Funny, but ouch!

By Todd Stone

Brennan says the CIA had to work hard to get intelligence after 9/11. Which is why they got people with no interrogation experience to do it.By AdamSerwer

Slavery: Enhanced Labor Techniques.By Carvell Wallace

Torture is wrong! (Except for when I torture people for all eternity if they don't believe in me.) By almightygod

One would have to be a moron not to see that Hollywood's long barrage of monstrous Muslims provides rationalization for killing real people.By Saladin Ahmed

If the moral calculation is simply, "Did the ends justify the means?" it's hard to see why we even bother with laws in the first place.By Christopher Hayes

"They" don't hate us for our freedoms! They hate us because we elect scumbags that institute torture programs & don't care.By Mary

"Does torture work?" as a question needs to be put in the bin with "Is slavery commercially feasible?" & "Can genocide help overpopulation?"By Hend

I want an America I can believe in. Where sadistic torturers, the mass thieves of Wall Street, and sociopathic murdering cops go to jail.By Xeni Jardin

Sometimes I wish the news cycle would stop so we could focus for a few days on the fact that the US was torturing people.By Bill McKibben

Cheney & ISIS:

By Tilo Jung

A global cult of tough-guy bullshit. This is the male culture that extends from jihadi wannabe to frothing gamer to killer cop to torturer.By Saladin Ahmed

A rule of thumb: If a future report on what you're doing would spur international protests & endanger American lives, don't do it.By Julian Sanchez

In just the last few months, the US Right has gone from defending xenophobia to defending racism to defending torture. What’s next?By David Roberts

"They were planning an attack!" is the "He had a gun!" of national security.By Saladin Ahmed

Even if you "debate" the efficacy of torture and decide it's bad, you're a bad person. It's not up for debate, if you believe in human rightsBy Zaid Jilani

Torture, racism, climate change — life must be nice when you can just deny the existence of anything that troubles you.By David Roberts

Coincidentally, the only information interrogators got from waterboarding prisoners was "I can't breathe." By Frank Conniff

From there on, it's the usual round-up of topics that yank my chain and funny things that keep me going, despite it all.

The real "women in tech" issue: women are less likely to put up with sophomoric behavior and cartoonish incompetence. By Buzz Andersen

Get those kids to stop running around laughing, pretending and imagining. They need to sit so I can teach my lesson on How to Play. By Sisyphys38

Rich people love to "solve" education, but they never seem to tackle economic inequality.By LoremIpsum

If your business is going to fold unless real wages of your employees decline each year, you have to wonder whether your doing it right.By Matt Bruenig

With the information age the world looks uglier, dirtier, more corrupt, scheming, mostly because the malicious was hidden from us before.By Nassim N. Taleb

I appreciate it when people suggest things to rid the body of "toxins" because it's an easy way to find out that they're idiots.By Ken Jennings

With publicly funded clinical drug trials all drugs could sell for $5 per prescription, way too simple for DC wonks.By Dean Baker

When adding density to the city, it's not the *people* that most object to - it's adding more cars:

By jennifer keesmaat

We need to do three major things to our institutions. We need to democratize them. We need to restructure them. And we need to humanize them.By Nikhil Goyal

The Mall of America has long had huge public subsidies, which is why it shouldn't be allowed to opt out of "public space" discussions.By William Lindeke

It’s starting to feel like the internet is a machine uniquely suited to ruining great ideas before normal people can even understand them.By Merlin Mann

The world seems pretty boring until you stop to think that there are 90-foot-long, 300,000-pound animals that just swim around singing sad songs.By PartyTeeth

A, B, C, or D?! (The best statistical question ever?)

By Max Roser

Having to pay slightly higher taxes because you're rich is pretty much a sign you've already won.By John Fugelsang

All of television: a neoliberal fantasy to fool the gullible into believing the wealthy just don't know how terrible capitalism is for them.By danielle villarreal

There should be a bar for people who don't want coffee or booze.By Patrick Steele

Why do we like kids who work hard regardless of the task vs. the kids that only work hard at tasks they deem worthy? We don't like thinkers.By Sisyphys38

There are no sports coffee shops.By Chris Steller

Remember, just because something is 'hard' or 'difficult,' doesn't automatically mean it's rigorous and challenging:

By Justin Tarte

I think I speak for all women when I say: we would ALSO like a pocket on the inside of our jackets.By Felicity Ward

Just because some of us can read and write and do a little math, that doesn't mean we deserve to conquer the Universe.By Kurt Vonnegut

We tend to think of great cycle paths as inherently Dutch; a mass die-in circa 1970 shows the people fought for them:

Being an economist means believing that everyone on the planet is much much smarter and more rational than you...except for sociologists.By Noah Smith

"Dwell on the past and you'll lose an eye." But the proverb goes on to say: "Forget the past and you'll lose both eyes."--SolzhenitsynBy Ta-Nehisi Coates

Sigourney Weaver testing the flamethrower for Alien on the lawn at Shepperton Studios:

By Film History In Pics

Found out last night our cat goes to the kebab shop down the road every day & they give him lamb mince. There’s a picture of him on the wall.By Sam Kriss

You can't be FOR standards but against standardization.By Sisyphys38

It turns out birds are good at avoiding wind farms. Which is good, because they're bad at avoiding climate change.By Bill McKibben

Map showing the elevation of the United States:

By Amazing Maps

DN3 says: All of those lightest green areas will flood if the sea level rises enough. Ursula LeGuin's book Always Coming Home takes place in a post-climate-change Northern California that has an inland sea just like the one that this map shows could exist.

Since September 2001, terrorism has killed 4,300 civilians; the war on terror has killed more than 2 million civilians.By Injustice Facts

If you plan a city for cars, you'll get more cars. If you plan a city for people, you'll get more people. There is no avoiding this truth.By jennifer keesmaat

This isn't the Year of Outrage. It's the Outrage Era, the social turmoil that comes from heightened awareness of others through technology.By Andy Baio

TV news' "whole goal is to raise enough anxiety that you tune in. It's not to inform or make society smarter."By Anil Dash

How exactly does one come to "deserve" success? Surely if it were possible we'd have a shift in who's successful?By KillerMartinis

“Scientists who popularize or make science too accessible are suspect by their research community."By Katie Mack

Yunnan snub-nosed monkey:

By Strange Animals

A 2,500-cow farm produces the same waste as a city of 411,000. (But a city has sewage plants...) Via @CowspiracyBy Seward Co-op

"Leon Panetta is on book tour. Chelsea Manning is in jail. John Kiriakou is in jail. Edward Snowden is in exile." – Jeremy ScahillBy Dirty Wars

Surveys find 80 percent of people would like a pension. High numbers also want Social Security expanded. And they want their humble tax break.By Helaine Olen

Everything changes. Don’t be afraid.By Erin Kissane

Ask that fool to account for all white affirmative action between 1619 and 2014. (Replying to Ta-Nehisi Coates and Jamelle Bouie.)By Lawrence Brown

Hegemony is a hell of a drug.By Matt Bruenig

I dreamt I gave birth to Bob Newhart. And that those two dudes from "Freaks and Geeks" almost started a war with North Korea. #HospitalFogBy Molly Priesmeyer

To people saying "pulling The Interview means the terrorists won": we have been taking our shoes off at airports for no reason for a decade.By Laurie Voss

I am the Lorax who speaks for the street trees, which you seem to be chopping to make things as fast as you please.By Nathan Leigh

Jabba the Ham:

By Halloween Costumes

Welcome to the flexible labour market. Works for the elites, but not for the majority of us!By WK Grainger

hey … hey you know that thing you’re not doing but keep meaning to do [long pause] you should make sure you do that thing — nightbrainBy Ethan Marcotte

My sister is doing an experiment: Whenever men walk towards her, she doesn’t move out of the way first. So far she has collided with 28 men.By Anna Breslaw

Americans know full well that our prisons are cesspools of abuse and sexual assault. They just don’t care.By Jamelle Bouie

The Eucharitid wasp — amazing evolution!

By Strange Animals

Long story short: Adaptation [to climate change] is much, much more difficult & expensive than mitigation. And requires bigger, more intrusive government!By David Roberts

Instead of using public money to lure capital to where it's needed, use public money to meet public needs.By David Kaib

Statistically speaking, it makes FAR more sense to profile men for mass shootings, etc, than to profile either Muslims or the mentally ill.By Saladin Ahmed

Show me the wealthy person that doesn't have vices. Poor people don't seem to be allowed to have any. – Linda Tirado (@KillerMartinis)By Simona Combi

Obsession with winning (not excellence) explains the push for uniform standards. We must compare states and nations: Who's beating whom? Competition also explains creation of standard that all kids can never meet. Our idea of excellence = there must always be losersBy Alfie Kohn

"Every single child 13 or 14 years old sentenced to life without parole for a nonhomicide has been a person of color." – New York Times December 14, 2014By Wesley Lowery

"Only 2 percent of members of Congress throughout history have come from working-class backgrounds." – Adam Lioz By Demos_Org

I wonder if salesmen realize that women like to make major purchases online because we're so often treated like children in the store.By Rainbow Rowell

Even when I agree with the politics, I've never seen a car covered in bumper stickers and thought, "I'd love to hang out with that person."By Janine Brito

To me, “not making rape jokes” is a pretty minimal requirement for dudes who consider themselves feminists or allies.By Erin Kissane

I appreciate when someone tells me they "like to argue." It's a reminder I should never discuss anything with them ever.By Faith Erin Hicks

Apparently kids must be forced to take math in high school because "studies prove" it's useful preparation...for more advanced math classes.By Alfie Kohn

Today I went and sat in really nice desk chairs and they were all for really tall people. So the patriarchy is getting great lumbar support.By Rainbow Rowell

Amazon can deliver a product same-day in some cities but can't get its workers out the door in 25 minutes?By Charlie Quimby [referring to this]

Congestion-free roadways and ample parking are to the United States what bread and circuses were to Rome.By Strong Towns

A close-up shot of Swinhoe's pheasant:

By Strange Animals

The teachers I see being the most grumpy and "down on kids" are the ones who loved school. They can't seem to comprehend non-compliance. I think we need to hire more teachers that didn't like school. They can better relate to the majority of kids who are disenfranchised.By Sisyphys38

Thanks, Angelina Jolie, for using your money and power to present the risky and rarely represented idea that Americans in WWII were heroesBy Conner Habib

Ever realised how fucking surreal reading a book actually is? You stare at marked slices of tree for hours on end, hallucinating vividlyBy Katie Oldham

The rich are far more envious, it seems, of the distributions the poor receive than vice versa. It so obsesses them! Cut cut cut!By Matt Bruenig

Excited to announce my latest venture, advising coffee shops on how to hide where customers are supposed to bus their dishesBy Chris Steller

Stones thrown through the windows of Buckingham Palace by suffragettes, 100 years ago today:

By Gavin Grindon

"Recall Cleaver's (or his ghostwriter's) view that European civilization was simply a form of domination. It is impossible to listen to the multiculturalists and not hear echoes of Eldridge Cleaver." The New Republic, 1991. That "or his ghostwriter's" crack is exactly how you get a "White's Only" sign hung above your publication. That's some Obama birther shit.By Ta-Nehisi Coates

I don’t have room for even one more smug statement about “girls’ natural preferences” in contradiction of so much data. Not even one.By Erin Kissane

Kozol: "Charity and chance and narrow selectivity are not the way to educate the children of a genuine democracy."By Nikhil Goyal

If the only way you can get behind an issue is if the axis centers on you, then you're neither an ally nor activistBy Odysseus Rex

You know what would be even better than pinning the health of all our institutions on the whims of billionaires? A robust public sector.By David Roberts

Pretty sure there's not a single person on television who has ever used the word "humbling" correctly.By evelyn pollins

When I was at Howard University, every Negro on the yard thought he woulda been Nat Turner, when all of us woulda been Kunta. And no shame in that. Same sin--no sense of "rape" and "enslavement" as institutional evils. Basically perceive them as individual acts, with no societal support. People who ask about Cosby, "Why didn't the women report it at the time?"recalls people who ask, "Why didn't all the slaves just rebel?" Think a large part of it is the discomfort with knowing YOU could enslaved, YOU could be raped. Better to think yourself superhuman.By Ta-Nehisi Coates

To which, user Frank Alvarez replied:
@tanehisicoates “As someone who has never been in that situation, allow me to explain how *I* would handle it with ease!”

I have been asked by a fairly well-known publication to write a 1,500-word essay on labor exploitation for $50. Guess they want autobiography.By Sarah Kendzior

"It’s kind of selfish to say you will only fight for a victory that you will live to see." – Ta-Nehisi CoatesBy Andy Kroll

Buy a stick. This is what capitalism has done to us:

By Talen Lee

* I recently read a Washington Post article that deconstructed the "every 28 hours" claim and showed that it is not supported by existing statistics. That number includes people killed by security guards and "vigilantes," not just police, and also includes people who were reported to be armed. The article concluded that something like two unarmed people killed per week was probably more accurate. However, as the author of the original article points out, her estimate is most likely an under count of police killings, given the number of states (such as Florida) that don't report.

1 comment:

"BREAKING: Industry's Last Remaining "Copywriter" Makes Transition to "Brand Storyteller" on Linkedin Profile." This and the Chris Rock comment on life coaches confirmed what I had noticed lately. So much other fascinating content, too.

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Third of four daughters, raised in a rural area outside of a small town. Now living in a moderately large city, making media and immersed in other people's media. Finally cleaning out the filing cabinet and loading its contents to the cloud.